practical inquiry regarding meaning » reality
The primary goal of the I-phase is to increase our capacity for self-control. This entails increasing command over our attention, having the ability to focus, having the capacity to adopt a long-term perspective that makes delayed gratification easier, and so on. What we attend to is what shapes our experience of reality. Being able to focus on those things that open up possibilities for us rather than the cheap, immediate gratifications that too often serve to limit our possibilites will help us increase our capacity for appreciating existence as the field of infinite possibilities.
Practices that can help us achieve these goals include meditation and mindfulness pratices. We might sit in silent meditation, quieting the mind, or we might engage in various types of active mediation or mindfulness. When we're immersed in performing a complex skill, for example, it requires all our attention. We forget about ourselves and focus only on the task at hand. Or perhaps the control we exhibit over our attention can involve listening to others, either in conversation, at a lecture, or even while reading. The ability to focus on the page, understand and grasp its content upon a first reading might be considered a form of meditation, for example.
The advantages self-control brings are numerous. It can bring self and world into greater alignment—a more refined harmony, one where we play our role well and consistently, where we're not caught off-guard by the vicissitudes of experience, etc. It gives us the ability to achieve a balance of attention even as we fully explore greater breadth to what we attend to. Self-control doesn't mean limiting oneself regarding what can be enjoyed. It means the opposite. It gives us the core stregnth to be able to lean further into each enjoyment without fear of being thrown off-balance. Focused-attention will also give us the ability to develop ever-more complex skills that are intrinsically rewarding. Self-control can also give us confidence that we're on the right path, growing steadily toward the realization of ever-greater potential. Indeed, self-control allows us to increase our potential—to increase our possibilities toward robust, flourishing lives.
Participants are encouraged to meditate, pray, and/or otherwise sit in silence, attitudinally opening themselves to mystery. If Heidegger (à la Sheehan) is correct, while mystery (das Geheimnis) is unknowable, "[i]t can be experienced in the non-discursive immediacy of dread or wonder [which...] robs us of speech" —Sheehan, T. (2015) Making sense of Heidegger [Rowman & Littlefield] pg. 227.
